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Permalink Reply by Joe B. Lovelace 19 hours ago

Trump Promised to Lower Energy Prices—but It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/oil-prices-trump-tariffs-tr...

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant 18 hours ago

Thanks, Joe.  I can imagine what the Wall Street Journal has to report on the topic.  Unfortunately the article is pay walled and I ditched my subscription when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought the Journal.

I don't miss it as it is only marginally more reliable and truthful than Fox News.

When someone tells me something that is ridiculous and untrue I have to ask,  Is that true or did you hear it on Fox News?

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Permalink Reply by Joe B. Lovelace 16 hours ago

Sorry for the link glitch.  Here are parts of the article.  Joe

President Trump had vowed to lower energy prices. His friends in the oil patch never dreamed he would do so by upending the global economy. 

Oil and gas donors spent tens of millions of dollars backing Trump’s second ride to the White House after he promised a new golden age of oil prosperity. They bet he would make fossil fuels a centerpiece of his second term and help them lower production costs, attract investors and build new pipelines and export terminals to tap in to new markets.  

Instead, frackers—and everyone else—are caught in a trade war that investors fear will clobber the global economy and sink demand for crude oil. Over two trading sessions, benchmark U.S. oil prices fell almost 14% to $61.99 a barrel, their lowest level since April 2021. That’s a price that shale drillers say would eventually hinder their investment plans. 

“It’s a buckle-up and hold on to what we have situation,” said Josh Lorenz, co-founder and co-president of West Texas oil and gas investment firm PetroLima. “Whiplash is the right term.” 

Falling prices put an additional squeeze on an already tight job market for petroleum engineers, geologists and drilling-rig hands. Recruiters say oil-industry workers are already having a tough time finding jobs after a series of layoffs in the wake of mergers and other cost-cutting moves.

In a survey released last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, energy executives decried the Trump administration’s suggestion that oil prices should hit $50 a barrel. One unnamed executive said oil prices at that level would cause U.S. oil production to “start to decline immediately and likely significantly.” 

“There cannot be ‘U.S. energy dominance’ and $50 per barrel oil,” the executive said. 

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant 15 hours ago

Thanks, Joe.  The question is how long the tariffs will remain in place.  The longer they are, the more economic destruction will occur.  The O&G industry, like everyone who supported Trump, is about to get a lesson in unintended consequences.

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